I recently bought a new computer with Vista installed. Since I did not have any office programs that I could legally transfer to a Vista computer I decided to try out the Free versions Openoffice, and downloaded them from http://www.openoffice.org/
The Open Office program has been develop as an alternative to Microsoft Word, Excel and Access. The document program looks so similar to Word that you really wonder how they get away with this. They are funded by Sun Microsystems (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenOffice.org and http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2005/dec/08/opensource.software) Officially you have to call the program Openoffice.org as somebody else owns the copyright on the name Openoffice (I ask again, how can they get away with this?)
It is based on the concept of Open software, where anybody can see the code and suggest improvements and developments, and people can add their own add-on programs etc. There is a presentation program called 'Impress' which is compatible with Powerpoint presentations (and looks remarkably similar.)
I have been using Open Office for a few weeks, but I am not entirely happy with it. It seems to have a few little annoying glitches; for instance when I scroll down a page it gets stuck and I see the same lines repeated lots of times.
I like the idea of some sort of alternative to the all powerful microsoft tools, but am thinking I may have to bite the bullet and pay for a new Microsoft Office licence so that I have some way of editing my presentations if nothing else.... Everybody knocks Microsoft but I feel quite grateful really for the amazing products they have developed. Just like those who knock Man U I often have the feeling that they are just jealous of well earned success. And I speak as a Chelsea supporter.
Comments